Switch.



' BEST AVAILABLE COP.

W. A. SPALDING.

Y SWITCH.

l APPLICATION FILED MAY I6. 1.913. 1,206,734. Patented Nov. 28, 1916.l

i Rigi.

--,. f eEsTAvAaAeLEcoPQ STATES rAriiisr OFFICE.-

A'. srALDInG, or -Los ANGELES, c ALIFoRNIA;

To all it may concern:

ABei ,known'that I, WILLInrr A. Srhrin; ING, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Los Angeles, in thecounty. of Los Angeles 4iand'State fl Californiaf--have .invented a new and use 1 switch, et'which the re-110W- .'ing is a-specification.` I

This invention relates to means -for closing two separate electricalcircuits, and among other objects it seeks tomakesuch provlsion thatwhenone. o fsaidV` electrical circuits is c losed, the closing meansislocked'in posi- .tion so as to keep'said circuit closeduntil.. v

the pers'on having control 'over the `locking 'means releasesl it. Italsofhashanfinterlockf'; '.in feature such that whenone of saidele'c-ftrlc'al circuits is closed, :the other' cannot-also `be closed. Afswitchsuch'as-thismay have various uses, but'I particularly contemplateusing it in connection with a yoting system installedjfordeliberatiwbodies'suchas state' legislatures, etc. 'In'this ca'se, a Switch-ofthis'type ismounted 'at eachf;legislators desk and byclosing'one ofthe'elect'ricalcir- '25 cuits hev would registerv an -aye' vote on a uestion'beforethe house, whilebyclosing- .naW-Y..

y making the provisions-above s et forth',

' l30 'a legislatori's prevented from voting on bothsides, ofthe'ouestion-'andis also prevented "from changing yhis .vote after itisonce' cast' -at`lea stso far as-the operation ofthis device isconcerned.A

j *The accompanying drawingsillustrate the' Figs. 2 and 3,1through vacasing inc losing the switch. Fig. `a section on .line- :vg-4%, 40 Figs.1 and 3, through-the casing inclosing the switch. Fig. 3 lis a-top Viewshowing a' fragment of the casing broken away so as to display 'theswitch.-v

The arrangement for forming tw-oielectrical circuits which have alreadyAbeen referred to and which are normally open, may be best seen byreference -to 'Fig The one circuit is formed by the leads '1 and 2 ofthe I .switch which are. electrical1y '.j connected to springs 3 and 4',respectively,-tvhic'hspr-ings are seen to' be electrically'l open' ordiscon-` il ed to springs 7 and 8,"respectively. The

e other of- -said circuits he would register a means shown in the formlof holding be energized is SWITCH,

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented NOV, ,28, 1916, applicati@mea-May 16,1913. serial Nb. 768,159.

shown for springs 3 and'i, but in 3 said.

springs 7 and 8 are shown with the metallic 60 pm or closing means 9connecting same so "as -to close the circuit formed by leads 5 'I and.-For each electrical circuit there is pro- 'vided a separate b utidentical set of closing 6'5 means andlocking and. operating mechanismfor same, which will now be described.-

The'pin 9 and element 10,.Fig. 1, constitute a movable member lwhich ispivotally mounted at 1-1. The weight oi this member 7() may besobalanced as to normally withdraw" itself into'the dotted positionshown in- Fig.

"1, in which event the circuit across leadsv 5 f and'' will be open inmanner similar to the .I

"circuit across leads '1 and 2, Figs. land 75 rFor` the purpose ofoperating the circuit closingV means, however, the same is conthroughstandard 12 to push button 13. This button is'normally adapted to e2;-

tend up and beyond the aperture 14 in a 36 4vplate 15, the said plate15A-preferably being thelegislators desk top in cases where the i switchis used for taking the legislative vote. Normally 'the balance ofmember10 would move the push button13 up and out through .35 v v the-plate toits dotted pos1tion, as shown in 'i Fig. ,1. In this event,theg-'circuit across leads -and 6 would'be open, but when the button]s i13Qis'depressed to Its full line position, the] pinV 9-would close saidcircuits-'as shown in 9o Figs. 1 and 3. When the circuit-closing meansis thus closing its circuit,'locking 2;

member, such as anelectro'magnet 16 adapted to member 1 0 in closmgposition. This electro'- magnet is provided with leads 17 and 18,4

master switchat the' speakersdesk. 'The electromagnets ateachllegislators desk may 10o ,be connected to the same m'astervswitchso. that the speaker, just prior to calling for a vote, may close saidswitch and energizejhe electromagnets 16. If the 'legislator` thenvotedbydepressing button 13, a wrought 1015 iron armature 19 which is carriedbyelement i 10 would be brought underzthe influence of the electromagnetsubstantially at the same `time whenpin 9 closed its circuit.

provided for locking the cafter the electromagnet 16 is denergized, and

this magnet would be denergized only by the Speaker opening the masterswitch after the vote had been fully counted and recorded.

Turning now to the closing means for the circuit across leads 1-and 2,this will be seen to. be substantially identical with that justdescribed for the circuit across leads 5 and 6. 1t -includes a similarpin 9', `element 10, pivotal support 1l', standard 12 and push button13. From Fig. 1, 'it Will be also seen that the circuit-closing meansare so posioned relative to each other that the members 10, haveintersecting paths of movement and that said paths end'ltogether atV theelectromagnet 16 Vso'that when element- !O is closing its circuitandfislocked onto the electromagnet, the element 10 cannot be moved upinto its closing position because of the interference which would arisebetween armature 19 and element 10. O11 this account the legislator'would also be stopped trom pressing button" 13 so as to cast-anothervote on the question additional to and on the other, side from the votecast by butfon 13. The button 13, for instance, may be termed the ayebutton, while the button l- 3 may be termed the nay button. I he Circuit5, 6 -therefore would be the legisla- L'ors aye circuit and wouldinclude an aye amp or other suitable vote-registering instrument whichisgcommon in voting systems and which forms no part of this invention,

while the circuit 1, 2 would be. thelegislators r may circuit and wouldcontain a nay lamp or other vote-registering device.

For the purpose of reinforcing the mechamism and causing the pushbuttons 13 and Y 13 to travel in a positive path', the links 2O may beconnected between the` stationary pin- 21v and the movable pins 22 onthe Standards 12 and 12', respectively. The mechanism mayalso beinclosed within a protecting casing comprising the side walls 23, Fig.

j 2, the end wa1ls24-only oneof which is shown, Fig. l-and the bottomAwall 25..

This casing-together with the plate might be made of porcelain or otherhard material, care being taken as to insulation, which l would morecertainly prevent. access'to the switch parts within the casing andwhich would therefore make' it more certain that the voting switch couldnot be tampered with for the purpose of .defeating its primary)7objects.

r eEsTAvAiLAeLE coP.

From the foregoing-detailed description, it is believed that theconstruction and mode of operating the switch are clear.

I claim:

1. .An electric switch comprising a casing,

l stationary contact means mounted in said casing, movable contact meansfor each stationary contact means disposed so as to be moved intocontact with its stationary co'ntact means, said movable contact meanscomprising curved levers substantially as illustrated, each of saidlevers pizvoted at one end in said casing, lugs on each side of each ofsaid levers disposed so -as to engage with one of said stationarycontact means when being moved, each lever when contacting with itsstationary contact means obstructing the path of movement of the otherlever f to prevent the other leverV from contacting with its stationarycontact means, and an electro-magnet ixed in said casing to con-v tactwith the free end of each le er when in contacting position to lock suchlever in contacting position.

2.An electric switch having two sets ofl contacts arranged so that oneset will contact to the exclusion of'the other, each of'V said sets, ofcontacts comprising'stationary h contact means fixed in said' casing,movable .contact means comprising levers, said levers Vso as to engagewith respective fixed con- 'tact means when moved, each of said leversin thecontacting position obstructing thepath of movement of theopposite lever, and 'an energized electromagnet to hold either of saidmovable levers in the contacting position thereby preventing acontacting movement of the opposite lever..

3. The 'combination with a casing comprising. a plate having aperturestherelos through and an outer face, of an electric switch comprising twosets of contact means,

said contact .means embracing stationary contact means fixed-in saidcasing and mova-` ble contact means pivotally mounted in said iioeasing, said movable contact' means being -`disposed so as to engagesaid stationary conf tact means .when moved in one direction,

push buttons operatively connected to the movable contact means andnormally eX- f' i tending out through said apertures,` said push buttonswhen-depressed closing ythe sets of contact means and electro-magneticmeans 1 for holding either set of contact means in the closed position,the depressed push button remaining belowj said/outer face in saidclosed position. v

4. In combination, an arrangement for making two contacts, a platehaving apertures therethrough, two push buttons normally projectingthrough said apertures and beyond said plate, said buttons being adaptedto be depressedthrough said apertures 130' and below the outer face ofsaid plate, sta- 95 being fulcruined in said casing and disposed1,206,784 BEST AVAILABLE copi.

tionary contact means for each of said contacts, two movablemembersadapted to be moved into position to engage said stationarycontact means, one of said movable members being operated by one of saidzpush buttons and the other of said movable Vmembers being operated bythe other of'said .push buttons, and an electro-magnet for'locking 4saidmembers in the position where they respectively contact with saidstationary contact means, 4and said movable members being so positionedrelative to each other that when one makes a contact, it will obstructthe path of movement of the other to prevent the other from making' acontact;

5. In combination, a plate having apertures therethrough 'and having anouter face,

two' push buttons normally extending out through said apertures andbeyond the outer face of said plate, said push buttons being adapted tobe depressed through said apertures and below the outer face of saidplate,

two ivotally mounted members connected -to said push buttonsrespectively, stationary Uopie'ift this patent may be obtained for vecents each, byaddressing Washingtomll. c'w v contact means, one of saidmovable members being adapted to engage one of the stationary contactmeans to make one contact and the other of said movable members beingadapted to engage the other of said stationary contact means to makeanother contact, and an electro-magnet for locking said movable membersin the position where they make their respective contacts, said movablemembers beingso positioned relative to each other that when one islocked in its contacting position by said electro-magnet it willobstruct the path `of movement of the other movable member whereby theother movable .member is prevented from being moved to contactingposition.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set .my hand at Los Angeles,California, this 10th day of May, 1913.

wILLnnxa- A. sPALDING. In presence of `A I l JAMES R. ToWNsEND,

- ROBERT A.ST EPS.

the .Gommiisjsionier M Paftctnta,

iba;

